Hi. I was wondering if someone could help me with an issue. Right now XP when shuts down closes everything and shuts down. Which is what most people want. I want windows to sit at the screen "It's now safe to shutdown your computer." I can't do a standard pc install, unfortunatly it won't work for what I need to do. I am using an external device that communicates on Com 1. It is tied in with our software, and will shutdown the pc when communications either drop between it and the pc, and or communications with our network. I need windows to shut down and stay at the "It's now safe to turn off your computer" screen as the external device strobes the pc, as soon as that strobe dies, it will go into a short duration timer, where it will cut the power, and turn it back on. Effectively our system in the field, when they hang, they will be rebooted. The problem is when the system at a shutdown, shuts it's self down, the external device doesn't get a chance to send the kill signal, and than will go into a long duration timer, and won't reboot for 2 hours. Any help would be much appriciated, thanks so much. Cheers.